Spy technology advances

For over a quarter of a century Jarris Fuller has been a private investigator, tracking people who are sometimes up to no good.

He says technology has advanced rapidly to assist the industry.

"When I first started 25 years ago obtaining surveillance video footage of somebody required a shoulder mounted camera," he says.

"These days the cameras are that small and so easily disguised, they might be a remote control unit on a set of keys taking video and audio."

But they have to work within the limitations of the law.

"If you wanted to check on your boyfriend to see where he goes, we wouldn't be placing a GPS tracker on his vehicle without permission and obtaining his permission basically defeats the entire purpose," he says.

"That's one aspect where we basically have to fall back on the old tried and true techniques of mobile surveillance situations.

"They have a situation where a worker has been injured, have been on claims for quite some time, they might get some information that the injured worker might not be quite as restricted as they claim or is working elsewhere.

"They'll often contact us to conduct surveillance of that person."

Jarris says tracking devices are useful for companies keeping an eye on their fleet.

"A GPS tracker would only be placed on a vehicle with the owners permission so if, for example, you were the owner of a business and were supplying company cars to your employees, it would be perfectly legal to put a GPS tracker on that vehicle and then monitor your employees," he says.

He says personal tracking devices have also seen recent advances in technology.

"At the moment there's a lot of new technology coming to the fore where people and GPS units will also be able to be tracked inside buildings, underground and things of that nature where the GPS signal these days can't go," says Jarris.

"They're looking at other technologies to be able to track any person anywhere."